Happy April of 1943

Happy April of 1943 was the nickname given to a series of U-boat attacks on British merchant ships in the English Channel during April 1943. The Kriegsmarine's submarines torpedoed several merchant ships heading from Britain's colonial empire back home to England; two of the convoys were headed into Plymouth, while one was departing for Gibraltar. On 8 April 1943, 3 transport ships from the St. John's-Plymouth convoy were sunken in the Western Channel Approaches, while 14 April 1943 saw three ships of the Plymouth-Gibraltar convoy and three more ships of the Dubai-Plymouth convoy be torpedoed by the U-boats in the English Channel. "Happy April"'s name came from the "Happy Times" of U-boat warfare, but the German economic victory was overshadowed by the ensuing British victory at the Battle of the Narrows.